


Just Tell Me Why

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Ending to Revenge of the Sith, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Imprisonment, Memory Loss, Sad Ending, Solitary Confinement, some horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 04:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13310226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Anakin suffers, but he can't remember why.





	Just Tell Me Why

 

There was cold, hard stone beneath him.

Anakin blinked his eyes open, wondering why he'd fallen asleep there—

A door clanged shut and sealed. Startled, Anakin bolted to his feet and lunged for the door, discovering it was the only exit from this tiny, windowless room.

Outside stood Obi-Wan, staring between the bars at him.

“What are you doing?” Anakin asked. “Where am I?”

Obi-Wan looked almost sick. “Where no one will find you.”

“Where's my lightsaber?” He was missing that, his shoes, his body felt like it had been hit by a speeder—

“I'm going to try to heal the crystal.” Obi-Wan's gaze, still locked with his, misted. “Nothing deserves to suffer as much as it has.”

There was something terrible in his master's face.

“You're scaring me,” Anakin said.

Obi-Wan gave him a look of absolute  _ something,  _ Anakin had no idea  _ what,  _ but it was  _ awful  _ and heartbreaking and—

And Obi-Wan turned to walk away.

“Don't leave me here!” Anakin wailed, slamming his palm against the bars. “Why are you doing this?”

Obi-Wan paused, his shoulders still hunched, his head still bowed with an infinite grief. He didn't look back. “Do you listen to the Force, now? Or are you too busy looking at yourself?”

“ _ What  _ are you talking about?”

Obi-Wan shook his head.

From here, Anakin could see a vicious wound in his back. The telltale signs of a lightsaber. “You're hurt. At least let me help you bind it up—”

A brittle laugh ending in a sob escaped Obi-Wan's lips, echoing in the awful, empty halls.

“Certainly,” Obi-Wan whispered. “ _ Healing  _ is what you would attempt were you close enough to me again.”  
There was something so broken about him, in so many ways, it made it difficult to breathe and threatened to shatter Anakin's heart.  _ Dear Force, what has happened? _

Obi-Wan walked away.

Anakin cried out to him, begged him not to leave him there, alone, but Obi-Wan hung his head, braced himself, and left.

And then he left the entire building.

And the planet.

Anakin frantically reached out to try to find  _ any  _ sentient life  _ anywhere  _ on this—

The Force was bleeding. It was bleeding, wailing, echoing with ten thousand violent deaths, shrieks of fear, pain— infants sobbing in the night, wounded and dying and not knowing  _ why,  _ just knowing the people who loved them lay dead and could not help them, could not still their pain or fear—

Anakin crumpled to his knees in horror.

The agony of the Force at the loss of its children, the howling emptiness out there that tried to reach in to claim his soul, the lack of anyone  _ anywhere— _

_ Only one thing could cause this,  _ Anakin realized through the pain threatening to split him in two.  _ The Jedi have been massacred. _

But who could  _ do  _ that? With three million clones standing guard over them, with the Temple built so that no one but trusted individuals could sneak in?

He clung to his bond with Obi-Wan, the only thing left against the empty devastation. Anakin whimpered at the loss of something so bright, so beautiful, so irreplaceable as ten thousand voices raised in joyous song.

Obi-Wan recoiled from his touch with a lonely wail. And then he turned his attention to their bond with a grim, heartbroken determination.

_ “Please,”  _ Anakin sobbed.  _ “Please, Obi-Wan, come back. Speak to me. Tell me why. Tell me what happened to us—” _

Obi-Wan shuddered as if Anakin were inflicting cruel abuses against him, and did not reply.

Instead, he severed their bond.

Anakin toppled over, hitting the stone hard and writhing.

The bleeding edges of the bond shuddered, and he did not know how long he screamed.

He knew Obi-Wan would be suffering just as much on the other side, so  _ why  _ would he  _ do  _ this? 

He lay on the cold floor, fearing he might remain trapped here forever.

He was not wrong.

 


End file.
